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August 28, 2006

Gender and education

Andersen Junior High in Chandler, Arizona is experimenting with single-sex classes:

In the last school year, the junior high began separating its physical education classes by gender, which [principal Jim Anderson] said worked well to prevent discipline problems and push students farther athletically.

"The physical education teachers loved it, and we've really noticed some significant improvement there with participation by both boys and girls. We have fewer students not dressing down; their energy levels are higher; and we've had fewer discipline problems. It's just working out a whole lot better." he said.

This year, Mr. Anderson is hoping to bring similar success to some "pilot" classes in math, science and social studies - something no other school in the Chandler Unified School District, and few schools in the nation, have attempted.

"Research has found that, academically, boys will do a little bit better" in the program, the principal said. "But what they're also finding is that you have significantly fewer discipline referrals from boys because they don't have girls to show off for and compete for. And the girls focus much better, they take off and really soar, because they're not held back by those boys who are distracting them all the time."

And no, this isn't foisted upon people: there's a parental tripwire in place.   

Although the program is not voluntary for students, they can return to mixed-gender classes with their parents' permission.

"We've only ended up moving two or three boys after the kids complained to their parents, the parents called me and I didn't want to fight with them," Mr. Anderson said with a laugh. "If I have a kid with parents who question it or don't want it, I'm not forcing them to do it. I'm moving those kids out."

And now a new study says same-gender teachers are better as well:

For all the differences between the sexes, here's one that might stir up debate in the teacher's lounge: Boys learn more from men and girls learn more from women.

That's the upshot of a provocative study by Thomas Dee, an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College and visiting scholar at Stanford University. His study was to appear Monday in Education Next, a quarterly journal published by the Hoover Institution.

Vetted and approved by peer reviewers, Dee's research faces a fight for acceptance. Some leading education advocates dispute his conclusions and the way in which he reached them.

But Dee says his research supports his point, that gender matters when it comes to learning. Specifically, as he describes it, having a teacher of the opposite sex hurts a student's academic progress.

Of course, the study involved co-ed classes, so it isn't exactly compatible with what's being done at Andersen.  And obviously it would take a ridiculous amount of political muscle to bring about complete same-gender classes (i.e. all-girl classes being taught exclusively by women, and only men teaching all-boy classes).  But if parents don't mind, is it worth a try?  

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